I have been on Xenical for 13 weeks now, since the end of april, and I've lost 34 lbs. I have not had anyside affects and drink lots of water. I have started counting cals and fat , as well as really increased my exersize. I'm losing about 2-3 lbs a week which is a healthy rate. I'm very happy with the xenical.
Good luck.

I do eat healthy food and try to avoid chips, sweets, pop etc, but if it is around I have very little. Like chips, if the kids are eating them I may have a SMALL handful, just enough to have a taste. As long as I get that taste I'm ok. When are you starting? Really give yourself a few weeks if you have side affects, some times your body just needs to adjust. Good Luck

Hey Girl!
I'm goig to be starting it on wednesday I think. I'm picking it up tonight, but going to give myself a few days to rid my body of the bad stuff.. that way no side effects will happen (at least I hope not.)

I don't want to be gross, but the five people I knew that took Xenical (one of them including myself), all had severe diarreha after only being on the pill a few days. My cousin's sister-in-law literally could not leave the house; it was so bad. My mother went back to the doctor and gave him back the pills. He was annoyed and said that we should stay on it longer but some of the people I knew kept having accidents (like the sneezed and they s*it themselves). This was WAY back when the pill first came out. The nurse at my doctor's office also was taking the pill and she couldn't stay on it because it was giving her the runs non-stop. We lost weight, but that's because we couldn't keep anything in our stomachs. I would not recommend this pill, but like I said, this had to be about 10 years ago.

Ugh, I wouldn't recommend it either!! I took it years ago and it was one of the worst, mosty embarrasing experiences of my life. The "leakage" was DISGUSTING! I had to go sit on the toilet even if I just had to pass a little gas....if I didn't, that would be the end of that pair of underwear. Not worth it in my eyes.

Absolutely, Siren. The underwear were DONE after that. The leakage was enough for me to chuck those pills. I was really surprised that happened because I was following a low-cal diet, etc., just like the doctor said. I really hope that they've changed Xen now. It has been years since I've taken it, but I have those gross memories to last a lifetime!!!

*lol* it's not a "gross" thread, you guys are giving me your opinions about it and I appreciate it
My mom took Xenical last year and she said it worked fine for her. She lost about 20 pounds in two months, even though she didn't restrict herself exactly like they say. Granted, she did have some "spills" *lol* if she had too much fat, but said that as long as you follow the diet and watch our fat intake you won't have anything to worry about. So I would like to think that Xenical has changed now. I'm sure there are some people who have had good experiences, and more who haven't. I guess it just depends on the person. The doctor really recommends that I take it to kick start my weightloss so I'm going to give it a shot. I'll definitely keep you posted as to what goes on.

I took Xenical just a few years ago. The composition of the pill didn't get changed, or it would have to be marketed as a different name, and we could likely buy a generic version.
Its not about following a low calorie diet with this... it is about following a LOW FAT diet... very low fat if you want to avoid side effects. If you are going to take this, then you cannot have fast food, many restaurant foods, anything with a moderate to high amount of fat without having horrible side effects.
I had some leakage, but not bad. When I was on it, I was only consuming MAYBE 10 grams of fat per day, 1000 calories/day and taking a multivitamin. If you move to a very strict low fat diet without Xenical, you will lose weight.
You must take a multivitamin to replace the fat soluable vitamins (A, D, E, K) lost because of the medication.
OH, I also saved money by not taking the pill at every meal. For instance, I would have a Slimfast for breakfast and it only has 2.5 grams of fat so I wouldn't take the pill for that-and wasn't necessary to take for that low of a fat intake for the meal. I would take it with supper, which was my large meal and had more fat in it.
The only real problem is that Xenical isn't a fix all. It is only a tool, and if you don't use the time you have with it to change behaviors and modify your lifestyle, then any weight loss you have won't last.

Xenical works by not letting your body digest a certain amount of fat (30%?). So if your body isn't digesting it, it has to go somewhere and that somewhere is out. Well our colon isn't designed to handle fat so if you eat too much fat, your body can't stop the umm slide.

Basically xenical works on two fronts. It doesn't let your body take in some calories associated with the fat you eat and the other is that it basically punishes you if you eat too much fat. So it is training you, in a sense to eat a lower fat diet. The problem with that is our body does need fat and there are good types of fat it needs. Also some vitamins need fat in order to be absorbed.